


Divine Legacy

by last_system_lord



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M, Post Continuum, Stargate: Continuum
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-22
Updated: 2015-04-22
Packaged: 2018-03-25 06:01:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3799534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/last_system_lord/pseuds/last_system_lord
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a short time with the Tok'ra, Ba'al's host is given sanctuary on Earth. Sam struggles with mixed feelings about him and no-one stops to consider that after two thousand years the phrase 'nothing of the host survives' may be more accurate than they had ever imagined.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Divine Legacy

**Author's Note:**

> I borrowed the name of Ba'al's host from the Big Finish audiobook An Eye for an Eye.

The extraction process began and Ba’al’s mind was splitting apart, agony enveloped him and he screamed as he was torn away, but at the same time remained. The sharp pain stopped as suddenly as it had begun and Ba’al slumped forward exhausted, his head fuzzy and aching.

A stray thought floated through the fog. _It must have failed_.

‘Behold!’ A voice called, causing Ba’al’s migraine to spike. ‘The last of the System Lords!’

And that _was_ something. Of all of them, he had survived the longest; he’d even outlasted Anubis, or at least, the unbalanced, arrogant _thing_ that Anubis had become.

The sharp sound of shattering glass sent fresh pain through his head and Ba’al vaguely wondered whether the Tok’ra were collectively throwing a tantrum. As far as he was aware, the extraction process had never failed before.

Voices were murmuring all around and Ba’al supposed he should say something, mock them for their failure, but when he raised his head the world spun into a blur. Ba’al felt distinctly sick.

‘Hey, it’s okay, he’s gone now.’ Qetesh’s face swam into view and Ba’al wondered what she was prattling on about.

His vision unfocused again and Ba’al shook his head vaguely, letting his gaze drop again. Focus returned and with it an impossible sight; lying on the floor of the chamber was unmistakably a symbiote. Ba’al blinked, narrowed his eyes and stared in disbelief, but it seemed his eyes weren’t deceiving him. He was still there, in the host, but also looking at himself on the floor, dead.

Outrage briefly replaced his confusion. They had _thrown_ him on the _floor_ , the last of the System Lords and they had failed to show even a hint of the proper respect. The Tok’ra would pay for this impudence.

‘Can you hear me?’ Qetesh looked considerably more concerned and the truth finally penetrated his migraine.

He was something of a ghost, an imprint of personality left on a human brain since his host’s mind had long since been overwritten. He was human, Ba’al crinkled his face up in distaste, his disgust at the thought dampening his satisfaction at the knowledge that he had not only survived but was in a prime position to escape the Tok’ra and _stay_ alive.

The extraction process hadn’t failed at all, but revenge would have to wait.

‘Yes,’ Ba’al answered Qetesh, keeping his voice neutral. ‘I can hear you.’

He face lit up, but behind her Ba’al could see several concerned Tok’ra peering at him and had to fight not to sneer at them.

‘What’s your name?’ Qetesh asked.

‘Name?’ Ba’al looked blankly at her. He needed a name; his host would have had a name, originally, at some point, probably. No, definitely, and he must have known it. What had it been?

Qetesh exchanged a look with one of the Tok’ra, while Ba’al cast his mind around but the name remained elusive. Ba’al had the growing realisation that he was going to need to invent a name. Unfortunately, his head was still feeling extremely foggy and Ba’al couldn’t think of a single one that seemed… suitable.

The Tok’ra stepped forward to take Qetesh’s place in front of him, he introduced himself but Ba’al missed the name. No matter. He was only Tok’ra.

‘I’m going to release the restraints now,’ said the Tok’ra in a clear voice.

It was only once the restriction around his chest had gone that Ba’al realised it was the only thing keeping him upright. The sudden movement as he pitched forward sent the pain spiking through his head again and his vision tunnelled; Ba’al decided he’d rather be unconscious than speak with a Tok’ra anyway.

Ba’al’s first conscious thought was that his headache had not gone anywhere. His second was irritation that Qetesh was leaning over him, Ba’al had to quash the temptation to glare at her.

‘Oh, you’re awake again, you passed out on us back there.’ Qetesh made a vague fluttering motion by the side of her head.

Ba’al scowled.

A Tok’ra, possibly the same one from before but Ba’al couldn’t be certain, leant over him from the other side. ‘Do you know where you are?’

Yes. He knew exactly where he was and exactly what was happening. It was them, the Tok’ra, that didn’t realise they still held the last of the System Lords captive. He just needed to get away before it penetrated their hosts’ thick skulls.

‘Can you hear me?’ The Tok’ra’s face creased up in worry and Ba’al realised he should probably say something.

‘Yes,’ he said and then, because he was going for survival, ‘I apologise, it is hard to think.’

That should fool them. It never would occur to them that he would apologise to a Tok’ra.

‘I don’t think he can remember his name,’ Qetesh whispered to another Tok’ra, then turned back to him. ‘Do you remember me?’

‘You’re Qet-‘ Ba’al stopped. He needed to be convincing to get them to play his game, apologizing was the first step and the second… He blinked and then looked her in the eye. ‘Vala. You are Vala Mal Doran.’

A wide smile spread over her face and Ba’al nearly rolled his eyes.

‘Good,’ said the first Tok’ra. ‘We understand this is difficult for you. You will be feeling weak for some time to come, but we believe your body will adjust to the absence of the symbiote.’

Weak? Ba’al would show them _weak_ and as for the _absence of the symbiote_ … he would come to terms with that particular humiliation once he’d secured his survival.

‘You can remain here while you recover,’ the Tok’ra continued. ‘In time, we can arrange for you to settle down on another planet if you wish.’

That sounded tedious. Unfortunately, it also had the potential to be worse than tedious. The longer he stayed with the Tok’ra, the more chance they would have to figure out he was deceiving them and that was _not_ acceptable.

However, as the Tau’ri expression went, beggars could not be choosers and Ba’al was practical enough to admit he had just been relegated to the position of _beggar_.

‘Aziru,’ said Ba’al as the name finally penetrated through the fog in his mind.

‘Excuse me?’ The Tok’ra looked bemused and Ba’al really, really wanted to tell him what he thought of his intelligence level.

‘I think it’s his name.’ Qetesh was smiling at him.

‘Yes,’ Ba’al confirmed, focusing on her rather than the Tok’ra. ‘I am Aziru.’

Aziru. His hosts name, and _his_ new name, for the foreseeable future.

____________________________

‘Seriously,’ Daniel was saying as Sam entered the meeting room, ‘I was in the middle of a translation, aren’t we supposed to get some warning for very important meetings. It can’t be sudden otherwise _you_ wouldn’t be here.’

Sam clocked who he was talking to and saw Jack sitting off to Landry’s left. Landry himself looked less than impressed by Daniel’s outburst.

‘Carter, you’re late,’ said Jack, but Sam could see the smile in his eyes.

‘Sorry, sir.’

‘We’ve been contacted by the Tok’ra,’ explained Landry dryly. ‘It seems Aziru isn’t keen on staying there.’

‘Aziru?’ asked Jack.

‘Ba’al’s host,’ Daniel immediately supplied.

‘Ah.’ Jack looked less than pleased, not that Sam could blame him. Jack knew that Ba’al’s actions were different to Aziru’s, but at the end of the day he still looked like Ba’al and Sam could see how that would bother him.

‘So…’ Daniel frowned. ‘Where do we come in? Weren’t they just going to find him a planet somewhere if he wanted to leave?’

‘Yes, they said that,’ Landry admitted. ‘But they also said that since he has Ba’al’s memories, he’s far too important to just let go. Basically, they don’t want to lose the information and they’re worried he won’t keep in touch.’

‘They suggested he comes here?’ asked Sam, partly rhetorically, because why else would the Tok’ra have contacted them?

‘Yes,’ Landry confirmed. ‘And that he stays here, at least for a while, so that they don’t lose access to the potential information he has. No that they put it like that.’

‘Also, _we_ don’t lose access to Goa’uld information,’ said Mitchell.

Jack pulled a face. ‘Screw the information, the Goa’uld are dead, we should tell those slimy snake heads where to shove their damn idea.’

‘Actually, I agree,’ said Daniel. ‘He wants to leave? Let him leave, let him go wherever he wants.’

Sam had a lot of sympathy with that statement, not least because she was getting an uncomfortable feeling about having Aziru around the base.

‘We can’t be considering holding him prisoner here?’ asked Vala and Sam could fully understand _her_ sympathy. ‘Because I have to say I am totally against that idea.’

‘Not as a prisoner, I made that clear to them.’ Landry looked around at them all. ‘But the Tok’ra say they are having trouble locating a world that they can one hundred percent guarantee he won’t be recognised.’

‘Pah,’ said Jack. ‘Excuses.’

Sam was inclined to agree, but there were other considerations. ‘Sir, I agree, but Aziru could tell us a lot about Goa’uld technology.’

‘Including things the Tok’ra won’t share,’ Mitchell said thoughtfully.

‘Oh no,’ Vala complained. ‘That’s not fair on him!’

‘No, I get that.’ Sam chewed her lip. ‘But nothing says _we_ can’t find him a decent place to go, if he doesn’t want to stay with us or the Tok’ra.’

Landry nodded. ‘That’s what I thought. Given the potential of the situation, I’m going to have to throw this over to the IOA before I can agree, but if none of you have any strong objections?’

‘No _convincing_ ones,’ muttered Jack, just loud enough for Sam to hear.

‘I can think of a few,’ Daniel broke in. ‘As soon as we’ve brought the IOA in on this, you know what they can be like. We can’t let Aziru come here if there’s any chance he’ll be prevented from leaving.’

‘I’m aware of that Doctor,’ Landry said. ‘He’ll stay in the SGC and be given guest status, if I don’t like the way the IOA are leaning, I’ll say no to the Tok’ra, but the way it’s looking is that he is going to come here.'

_____________________________

Sam didn’t like Aziru. The problem was; she couldn’t pin it down to anything in particular. He was quiet and reserved and generally polite and, honestly, there wasn’t anything about him that would usually get on her nerves. Except he did.

They had him under light guard, mostly because no-one actually _knew_ him. As far as Sam could tell everyone just defined him as not Ba’al, something that seemed to be grating on Vala, possibly because Aziru hadn’t opened up to her either.

It was Sam’s turn to babysit him, for want of a better term. He was supposed to be looking at the plans to a cargo ship that needed repairing, everyone was pretty hopeful that he’d retained enough of Ba’al’s memories to be able to help them with Goa’uld technology. Sam had her doubts, but she was willing to admit that that could have more to do with her automatic dislike of him.

All he was doing was sitting there, head bowed slightly, looking at her computer, and it was grating on her nerves like nothing on Earth. Or anywhere else in the galaxy for that matter.

‘Anything?’ Sam asked impatiently.

‘Nothing.’ Aziru sat back from the screen. ‘I know this type of ship well, but how to fix it…’ He shrugged.

‘Okay.’ Sam reminded herself to be patient. Vala and Daniel both thought they were rushing him by doing this now and Sam agreed with them, but if the memories faded they could lose a potential goldmine of information. Which didn’t make it any fairer to Aziru, of course, but inevitably the IOA were insisting. ‘How about we look at the plans to a DHD?’

Their knowledge of the Stargate system was pretty good, but Sam knew there was always more to learn, and Ba’al had known a lot about it.

Sam swore she saw him abort rolling his eyes. ‘I doubt I will be any help to you.’

‘I know we’re asking a lot of you, but could you give it a try?’ Sam slid the diagrams across the bench to him.

Aziru looked at it for no more than a moment. ‘No. I recognise the layout, but not how it works.’

Sam forced herself to take a deep breath. Was he even trying? But then she could hardly blame him if he wasn’t; who would _want_ to remember things from when Ba’al controlled them? Only… what else was there for him to remember? Two thousand years was a long time.

‘Maybe if I talked you through what we know?’

Aziru sighed. ‘If you feel it would help.’

Nothing about the connection to the gate sparked his interest and Sam got the impression he wasn’t even listening properly. She got half way through the explained of her understanding of the crystals, when she saw his lips twitch slightly, as if he was hiding a smile.

‘What?’

Aziru blinked. ‘I said nothing.’

‘No, but…’ Sam pointed at a crystal on the diagram. ‘I was just talking about this and you smiled.’

‘I did not.’

‘Yes, you-’ Sam stopped. ‘Okay, you were _going_ to smile.’

‘Is that a crime?’ Aziru raised his eyebrows at her.

‘No, I just…’ Sam rubbed her temples. ‘I was wondering what was so amusing about this crystal. Did I say something wrong?’

‘I wouldn’t know, I don’t remember.’ Unless she was imagining it, Aziru looked a bit amused. The expression suited him better than the curiously blank one he tended to wear, but under the circumstances Sam didn’t appreciate it.

‘Then why were you smiling?’

‘No particular reason. I apologize if it distracted you.’ Aziru assumed a very serious expression. ‘Is this better?’

Sam found _herself_ smiling and she shook her head. ‘Okay, okay. Sorry. I’ll continue.’

She got through the rest of her explanation without the slightest reaction, so she decided to go into more detail on the connection to the gate. Maybe now she’d gone through the rest of it, something would spark a memory, and she could go into more detail. Any information they could get on the DHD could help them improve their own system.

‘So, _that’s_ all we have on the power stabilisation within the gate system,’ Sam concluded one section and it occurred to her that Aziru had been very quiet. It was eerie. She looked up; Aziru wasn’t looking at her, nor was he looking at the diagrams out on the table, instead he seemed to be staring off into space. Sam’s irritation spiked again. ‘Hey, are you even listening to me?’

‘Oh, mostly.’ Aziru sounded bored and Sam scowled.

‘If you’re not going to listen…’ Sam began in a clipped tone, then trailed off and looked back down at the plans. _Cut him some slack,_ she reminded herself.

‘I don’t think I’m likely to remember anything of use,’ Aziru said, in a more pleasant tone and Sam really, really had something weird against him that she just couldn’t place. Maybe it was just the total waste of time this was turning out to be.

‘You’re here for another,’ Sam checked her watch, taking a deep breath, ‘hour, before Woolsey wants to see you, so why don’t you just take a seat or something and I’ll get back to work.’

She jammed the papers back into a pile and turned back to her computer, bringing back up some more _useful_ work. The scrape of a chair told her that Aziru was doing as he was told. Sam felt a headache forming.

‘I’m sorry I can’t be more help,’ said Aziru regretfully.

Sam massaged her temples and didn’t reply.

_______________________________

The meeting was early in the day and Sam wished she’d had time to grab coffee on her way there. Daniel didn’t look much better, but then, Daniel usually looked like he’d pulled an all-nighter.

‘Colonel Carter, what’s your progress with Aziru?’ Landry asked and she sighed.

‘No progress really, sir.’ She gathered her thoughts. ‘I’ve shown him the DHD plans, our own Stargate interface and plans to the cargo ship and he just doesn’t remember enough for us to have gotten anywhere. He refused to look at our broken ribbon device, though.’

‘Not exactly surprising,’ said Daniel. ‘I still say we rethink the whole thing.’

‘Dr Jackson, we’ve been through this.’ Privately as well as publicly from Landry’s tone. ‘The IOA are not prepared to give up on-‘

‘I really don’t care about the IOA.’

Daniel was clearly pissed off, and while Sam didn’t blame him…

‘Actually I’m not sure he minds. Well,’ she amended, ‘he gets a bit bored after a couple of hours. But I don’t get the impression it’s bothering him like that. Also, I really think he _is_ understanding most of what I say, particularly with the cargo ship, I honestly think it will be worth continuing.’

‘Shouldn’t he remember _all_ of this?’ complained Jack.

‘Well, no, sir,’ said Sam. ‘He remembers a lot really. It’s a hell of a lot of information, he’s lived thousands of years. So he can remember some of what I’m saying, he knows _exactly_ how the cargo ship works, probably because Ba’al spend a lot of time in ships. But to fix it, he has to _understand_ how each component works, and its interaction with the main power grid and the interface _and_ figure out from that how it can be fixed, or how we can apply a patch. It’s different from just remembering.’

‘ _Carter_ ,’ said Jack, in a very familiar tone and Sam grinned.

‘Perhaps in less words, Colonel,’ said Landry.

‘Right.’ Sam marshalled her thoughts. ‘First problem is; he can’t possibly remember everything Ba’al knew because he lived so long.’

‘I can’t remember what I had for breakfast,’ put in Jack.

‘Exactly,’ Sam said. ‘And then what I was trying to explain before is Ba’al may never have come across the exact issue we’re having with the cargo ship, particularly because we have limited resources and we’re interfacing our own technology. Bottom line is; we’re asking him not only to remember Ba’al, but to think like Ba’al.’

‘Which isn’t exactly fair,’ Daniel added and Sam gave him a quick smile of acknowledgement.

‘No, I think that part _is_ hard for him.’

‘See? Do we _really_ want to put him through-’

‘Dr _Jackson_ ,’ Landry said, irritably. ‘You’ve made your point and as much as I agree with you, the IOA does not. For the moment, we _are_ going to continue getting Aziru to work with us.’

Daniel gave a sigh of exasperation. Jack shrugged at him.

Sam decided to plough on anyway. ‘I did have a suggestion, sir.’

Landry made a _go on_ gesture.

‘I want to take him on board the cargo ship.’ It wasn’t going to be a popular suggestion, but Sam got the feeling all Aziru needed was a little nudge in the right direction. The cargo ship was out at a remote, but secure, location next to a small base and Sam didn't think there was much of a risk taking him there.

‘I think not.’ Jack was the first voice of protest.

‘We really don’t know anything about the man,’ Landry pointed out to her. ‘And you want to take him aboard our cargo ship?’

Sam turned to Daniel, waiting for his response.

‘Oh don’t look at me, my lips are sealed, remember?’

A muscle twitched in Landry’s jaw.

‘I honestly think he could help us with it, if he would just concentrate on the equations, and I suspect it’s our equipment putting him off. The cargo ship would be familiar surroundings and I believe there’s a good chance it will help him focus. With the ship here…’ Sam shook her head. ‘It would be a wasted opportunity not to try.’

_________________________

‘You don’t like him.’ Sam jumped slightly as Vala announced her entrance to Sam’s lab.

Sam checked an equation and moved on to the next one. ‘Who?’

‘Aziru,’ said Vala breezily. ‘You’re pretty hostile towards him.’

‘What, no!’ Sam denied hurriedly. ‘I don’t… He’s fine.’

‘Oh, don’t be silly, _everyone_ must have noticed by now.’ Vala leaned on her desk. ‘I’m fairly sure he thinks you’re holding a grudge because of Ba’al.’

Sam rolled her eyes. ‘He doesn’t think that.’

‘Yes he does.’

‘Did he actually tell you that?’ Sam seriously doubted Aziru had strung together enough words to tell Vala any such thing, but at the same time she really hoped she hadn’t been that obvious around him.

Vala flapped a hand dismissively. ‘Oh, he didn’t need to. So, if that’s not it, why don’t you like him?’

‘Vala…’ The simulation she was running failed and Sam worked on readjusting the parameters. ‘I _don’t_ dislike him, how could I? He hardly says anything.’

Vala’s expression dimmed a bit. ‘Yes, he’s very distant. I think he’s having a lot of trouble adjusting.’

Sam felt a stab of guilt at her uncalled for dislike of the guy. ‘Yeah. He’s been through a lot; actually he’s coping better than I was expecting.’

‘Mmm.’ Vala wandered around the room. ‘He still likes you better than me.’

‘What?’ Sam gave Vala a half smile, mostly out of disbelief. ‘You just said he thinks I see him as Ba’al! Besides, you’ve been great to him, really supportive.’

‘No, I said he thinks you’re holding a grudge because of Ba’al.’ Vala draped herself over Sam’s computer screen. ‘But he still likes you. Me… he keeps giving me these _looks_. Like _this._ ’ Vala screwed up her face slightly and narrowed her eyes.

Sam smiled. ‘He does not.’

‘He does. Ask Daniel, he admitted he saw it too. _And_ he keeps avoiding me.’

‘Huh.’ Sam tapped her pen on her desk. ‘Maybe it’s because Ba’al didn’t like you. I wasn’t blended with Jolinar for very long and I had… impressions of people from her. Could explain why he wasn’t keen on staying with the Tok’ra. Although Ba’al didn’t like me much either, I did hit him, after all.’

‘Could have been a different clone,’ Vala mused. ‘But I know what you mean; you might be on to something.'

‘Oh, Sam’s always right about something or other.’ Daniel strolled in. ‘What are you two conspiring about?’

‘We were just talking about Aziru,’ said Vala.

‘Oh, you were telling Sam about the _look_.’ Daniel screwed his face up exactly the same way Vala had and narrowed his eyes.

Sam grinned.

Vala looked at Daniel. ‘She doesn’t believe me.’

‘Oh no, it’s real enough.’ Daniel’s poker face was convincing enough that Sam had no idea if he was kidding. ‘Just every now and then out of the corner of your eye.’ Daniel imitated the expression again. ‘I’ve only seen it aimed at me once. He does it more openly around Woolsey.’

Sam still wasn’t sure if she was having her leg pulled. ‘Really? I haven’t noticed.’

‘No, because he _likes_ you, I told you that,’ Vala said.

‘Mmm hmm.’ Daniel tilted his head to one side and now Sam could make out a slight smile. ‘You were probably too busy glaring at him to notice.’

‘Funny.’ Sam turned back to her computer.

‘I thought so,’ said Daniel.

‘And still true,’ added Vala, stubbornly.

‘Okay, so you don’t glare,’ Daniel admitted. ‘Not quite. But the face… he definitely does that. Watch him when someone irritates him, it’s there. Go have a look next time he’s near Mitchell; Vala thinks he doesn’t like her, well _Mitchell…_ definitely not his favourite person.’

‘Come on,’ said Sam, laughing now. ‘He can’t dislike everyone.’

‘Except you,’ put in Vala.

‘I don’t think he dislikes me,’ said Daniel. ‘After all, I only got the look once and I _was_ talking about the Tok’ra.’

Vala sent Sam a significant look, as if that proved Sam’s theory, but Sam shook her head. ‘I don’t believe it.’

‘No, really, he does that,’ Daniel assured her. ‘More subtle than Vala showed you, but he does.’

Vala bumped his shoulder. ‘You weren’t here when I showed her.’

‘But you showed me.’

‘Maybe I did it differently to Sam.’

‘Ohhh, I don’t think so.’

‘Okay,’ said Sam, a little grin on her face. ‘I’ll look for it.’

___________________________

Ba’al was mostly certain none of the Tau’ri had caught on, but he had a feeling it was only a matter of time until either they, or the Tok’ra, figured it out. Samantha Carter in particular seemed to dislike him and Ba’al wondered if she was beginning to suspect.

It was a shame, as it meant he was going to have to start avoiding her and of all the Tau’ri, he found Samantha the most agreeable.

He had a feeling he should also avoid Qetesh, getting frustrated at her would likely give him away and he’d already given her enough to be suspicious of him. Yet avoiding her would be difficult, as she seemed committed to spending time with him, leaving the best course of action to be to simply convince her.

‘Hey, Aziru!’ Samantha approached too quickly for Ba’al to get himself out of sight. He had purposely skipped the session in her lab and doubtless she had been looking for him.

‘Samantha?’ He turned around, fixing a confused look on his face. He’d noticed that the expression seemed to aggravate her, although as to _why_ he had no idea.

‘I was expecting you in my lab an hour ago,’ Samantha explained, looking at him for an answer.

Ba’al tried not to grimace. Hours and hours of occasionally throwing her a useless piece of information was extremely boring. Even if, for a Tau’ri, Samantha did have an unusually high understanding of a wide range of technologies.

‘Oh.’ He furrowed his forehead as if he was trying to remember. ‘I’m sorry, I had forgotten.’

He was rewarded with the flicker of irritation that danced across her face whenever he pretended to be less intelligent or absent-minded. Interesting.

‘Right. Did you want to head down there now…?’ Samantha indicated back down the corridor and Ba’al resigned himself to the inevitable.

At least she did not go straight for the DHD diagrams, the Tau’ri had only a very basic understanding of the dialling device and it was infuriating to hear her try and explain the same incorrect concepts in as many different ways as possible. How they had ever managed to dial their Stargate was a mystery.

Ba’al helped her to correct a power output parameter to their newest type of naquadah generator and then stood and watched as she explained the rest of the modifications. The design was surprisingly good for the Tau’ri’s level of technology, but Ba’al could think of a few easy improvements. He didn’t give them to her. Being cooperative was one thing, too much help and they would want him to remain on their planet forever.

And the looming threat of the Tok’ra made that impossible. Not that he could stomach being ‘Aziru’ for an extended period of time even without the impending discovery of his true identity.

Samantha produced the plans to a badly damaged cargo ship, ones he’d seen before and been particularly unhelpful about.

Something must have shown in his expression because she held up a hand. ‘I know. We’ve got through these before, but I was thinking; you would have been aboard Goa’uld ships for, well, most of your life.’ She gave him an apologetic look so Ba’al tried to look introspectively thoughtful. He probably hadn’t succeeded. Whatever.

‘Maybe,’ Samantha continued, ‘if you were looking at the actual systems that we’re trying to fix, it might be easier to remember.’

‘What?’ asked Ba’al. This ship… if the Tau’ri actually had it and were willing to let him on aboard. It would certainly fly again, with a few modifications.

‘If you don’t want to, that’s fine. But I spoke to Landry and I’ve got permission to take you to it, if you wanted to have a look.’ She looked back at the monitor screen. ‘We’re not exactly getting very far here, but since our equipment is hardly what you’re used to…’

They _were_ honestly going to let him onto their cargo ship; Ba’al couldn’t believe his luck. He must have been wrong about Samantha suspecting him, in fact, it seemed as though she might have been entirely fooled.

‘I can take a look at the ship, but I cannot promise it will help.’

‘Great!’ Samantha got up from the desk. ‘Anything to get out of my lab, right?’

‘Exactly,’ said Ba’al, without thinking, but Samantha only grinned at him. Intriguing. He’d have to find out exactly why she was so… inconsistent around him.

‘The Odyssey’s in orbit, so we can get beamed there… um. You remember beaming technology, right?’

‘Right,’ Ba’al agreed. Beaming technology was extremely useful, it was a shame they wouldn’t give him access to _that_.

‘Oh good.’ Samantha’s smile came back. ‘Because otherwise this would be a little disorientating.’

Hardly. He may not have had access to beam technology for very long, but he hand been using transport rings and it was much the same thing. Doubtless his host would have remembered that too, had it been possible for a host to survive two thousand years.

The cargo ship appeared around them in a flash of white light, and it was one of the most beautiful sights Ba’al had ever seen.

‘Okay,’ said Samantha, looking around the ship. ‘You can see it’s a little beat up, but the hull integrity is good so if we can fix up the systems we’re pretty sure we could still use it. We asked to Tok’ra to help us with it, but they didn’t commit to anything and General O’Neill doesn’t think they will.’

‘Which, presumably, is where I come in.’ Ba’al let his eyes roam around the ship. Damaged, certainly, he could see blacked marks that demonstrated there’d been a battle in this ship and where some of the crystals had overloaded. But it was fixable. With time and patience, it could be exactly what he needed.

‘Which is where you come in,’ Samantha agreed. ‘Hopefully. At least it’s familiar to you, isn’t it?’

‘Yes.’ Ba’al had to keep himself from smiling. ‘It’s familiar.’

They did not spend long on the cargo ship, but it was long enough for Ba’al to figure out what he would ‘remember’ how to fix first. The engines had to be a priority, along with the cloak, and the rings would also be necessary. The weapons were unfortunately badly damaged and would take more time than he was willing to spend on them, but it was no matter, he could fix them later. His aim was to use the ship to escape, not to attack them. If he had to fight his way out than the plan would have already failed; a single cargo ship was no match to the Tau’ri’s defences.

Exactly what he would do once he _did_ get away, Ba’al had no idea. There was a small chance there was some of his original DNA in one of his planet based labs, so perhaps he could transfer his consciousness into a cloned symbiote body. Living out a human life was certainly not his preferred option, but Ba’al was well aware that it may be his _only_ option. He prided himself on being adaptable, but this particular situation… it was bizarre.

Ba’al shook his head. First things first; he needed to leave Earth.

In the meantime, Sam had left to attend to phase shift research, which would be extremely interesting, but Ba’al couldn’t risk showing an interest in it. He needed to spend as much time on the cargo ship as possible, not with various side projects, so he had decided to head to lunch. He was rapidly regretting the decision to do so in the SGC. Yet leaving would have required an escort.

Ba’al poked suspiciously at what seemed to pass as food among the Tau’ri. He’d spent time on their planet before, he _knew_ all of their food was not like this, so why did they insist on serving it?

‘Mind if I sit here?’ Daniel Jackson approached with a tray and Ba’al eyed him warily. Not more questions. Surely not more insufferable questions, as if inflicting Qetesh on him hadn’t been enough.

‘Not at all,’ said Ba’al, thinking; _yes, go away._

‘Great.’ Daniel sat down and put his tray down, looking up and trying to catch Ba’al’s eye. ‘I wanted to ask you a few things, if that’s okay.’

‘I would rather you didn’t,’ Ba’al said, more or less automatically, proving that he had yet to adjust to his new increased sleep requirements.

Daniel’s eyebrows rose and Ba’al cursed inwardly. ‘Ok-ay. You seemed alright with Sam asking you questions.’

Only because she was unwittingly offering up a cargo ship.

‘Samantha is asking me about ship systems and power requirements, I doubt that is your intention.’

That seemed to do the trick, because Daniel winced. ‘No, ah, no I wasn’t. But some of these are important and I thought you’d rather I ask them than the IOA.’

Coming from anyone else, Ba’al would have taken that to be a threat. As it was, he’d known this was coming, the Tau’ri had had their own motives for allowing him on to their planet… even if they didn’t know exactly who he was. ‘I see.’

‘Yeah. I’m sorry, but I do have to ask.’ Daniel broke eye contact and Ba’al supposed a conversation would at least distract him from the food. ‘If it really starts to bother you, just let me know.’

Ba’al nodded. He could guess the types of questions Daniel wanted to ask him and was confident he could bluff his way through it. He had, after all, convinced millions of people that he was a God.

‘Good. So, uh, firstly, just before the extraction-‘ Daniel hesitated when Ba’al winced. ‘Sorry, but Ba’al said something about a terrible mistake, do you know what he meant by that?’

An obvious question, to which he had a prepared answer. ‘He thought you might halt the procedure if he knew something of worth.’

‘Right, so nothing in it?’

‘Not that I can recall.’

‘That’s good to know. He did say that the original Ba’al could remove his locator beacon, do you know if that’s true, if it’s possible he’s still around?’ Daniel looked at him intently.

Ba’al supposed that, theoretically, his original could still be out there, but he found it unlikely. Although how exactly the failsafe plan had failed was totally beyond him. Granted, many things could have gone wrong, but very few that resulted in the timeline remaining intact.

‘The original is dead.’ A risky statement, if they were to run into him, but Ba’al judged the risk to be minimal.

‘Really?’ Daniel grimaced. ‘I’d love to believe that, but how can you be sure?’

‘I cannot. But the ship he was aboard was destroyed.’

‘Well, that’s more definite than I could hope for, thank you. Ba’al said you were the last clone, was that true?’

‘We all had locator beacons. If you cannot detect any more, than he was the last.’ That much was not a lie, at least. Ba’al wondered at what point he should cut short the conversation, as Daniel would expect the host to dislike it.

‘But did they _all_ have locator beacons?’ asked Daniel. ‘And there was no way to turn them off?’

‘Yes, and no, there was not.’

Daniel scratched his head. ‘I hate to doubt you, but are you _sure_?’

Gods, Ba’al reflected, did not have to explain themselves. A shame he could no longer claim that status, but then, it never _had_ gone down well with the SGC. ‘Not entirely. But all had them and as far as I am aware there was not a way to deactivate them.’                

Thankfully, the locator beacon had been in the symbiote, not the host body, so they would be unable to track him once he left their planet. When he had planned that, it had been so the symbiote could be tracked even if he chose to change hosts, now he was about to benefit from that decision under the most unlikely circumstances.

‘Small favours. Can you remember the locations of cloning labs? Because if there’s any left, the last thing we want is more Ba’al’s waking up around the place.’

‘Locations…’ Ba’al pretended to think. Not all the labs had been found and destroyed, but those that hadn’t were empty, as far as he knew anyway. It was possible that circumstances had changed enough that the original wanted more clones, if he was alive. ‘Most were on ships. I believe you found the ones that were here.’

‘But there were ones on planets…?’ Daniel prompted.

‘Yes. I can picture one place, but the gate address… I don’t know.’

‘How about bases where there weren’t cloning facilities?’

‘There were many...’ None of which he was going to give to Daniel, no matter how nicely he asked.

‘Can you remember why we might find some of them? Any details about them?’

Ba’al had had about enough as he could take of the conversation, and of the food in front of him. ‘No.’

Daniel studied him thoughtfully. ‘No, as in you don’t remember, or no you don’t want to remember?’

No, as in he was hardly going to give the Tau’ri such information. He might never be able to revisit all of his bases, if any, and if he couldn’t have them, then no-one would. It was definitely time to pull the guilt trip on Daniel, it had the potential to be quite amusing.

Ba’al looked away dramatically. ‘I do not remember.’

Daniel paused, winced, and then continued. ‘I get that, but it could be important to us, so if you could _try_ to remember…’

‘No. I… I do not remember.’ He thought the mild stuttering was a good effect, and from the look on Daniel’s face he had pulled it off to perfection.

‘Okay, sorry. Look if you needed, or wanted, to talk about anything, you can always come find me and I know Vala would listen.’

Qetesh? Listen? As far as Ba’al had noticed, all Qetesh was capable of was talking. All the same, Ba’al was extremely proud of his handy work as Daniel was looking sadly at him. Gullible Tau’ri.

‘Thank you for the offer.’

‘Yeah, no problem.’ Daniel ducked his head and Ba’al realised the conversation was not yet over. What more did he have to do? Burst into tears? ‘Do you think it would help to talk about your life before Ba’al? I don’t know how much you remember, but maybe if you-.’

‘It would _not_ ,’ Ba’al said emphatically. Inventing random stories about his host was not Ba’al’s idea of fun. With any luck, the guilt trip would prevent Daniel, or any of the other Tau’ri, from attempting to pry.

‘Right. I’ll leave you alone.’ Daniel offered a strained smile and picked up his tray. ‘Enjoy your lunch.’

Ba’al curled his lip as he let his gaze fall back to the food. Perhaps it was an acquired taste.

____________________________

‘Oooh,’ said Vala, holding up a pair of ripped jeans. ‘These would suit you!’

They’d been shopping for almost two hours and although Aziru had successfully picked out a few plain, short-sleeved shirts, he hadn’t been thrilled at the shops Vala had dragged them into since.

Sam looked over at him and almost sniggered at his unimpressed expression, a muscle was working in his jaw and Sam suspected the jeans weren’t his taste any more than they would have Ba’al’s.

Somehow, Vala missed the look and held up another similar pair. ‘Or these!’

‘Perhaps something more… simple,’ said Aziru, through clenched teeth.

Simple. Also not a word Sam had ever connected with Ba’al’s fashion sense, not with the elaborate collars, coats and leather boots. Frankly it was strange looking at Aziru because he _wasn’t_ dressed like a Goa’uld.

‘Oh.’ Vala dumped the jeans unceremoniously back onto a pile and started digging around some more. She came up holding a pair of maroon skinny jeans. ‘How about _these_!’

‘ _Qetesh-_ ‘

Sam’s head snapped up to see Vala frozen, the offending jeans dangling loosely in her grip.

‘Sorry, Vala. Sorry.’ Aziru still sounded frustrated and he turned away, pinching the bridge of his nose.

‘Okay,’ said Sam, hurriedly intervening and stuffing the jeans back on to the pile. ‘That might enough shopping for today.’

Vala regrouped quickly, but her happiness seemed more than a bit forced. ‘So, part two then?’

‘Exactly,’ Sam said, guiding them both out of the store. ‘I’ll be honest with you, Aziru, we didn’t just take you out to go shopping today.’

‘Oh?’ Aziru lifted an eyebrow, wariness and suspicion flickering over his face.

‘It’s a surprise.’ Sam smiled at him, still trying to recover the situation. ‘Come on.’

The taxi ride to the apartment block was quiet and Sam winced inwardly; it took a lot to silence Vala. They all piled out and Sam turned to Aziru, he was looking at the apartments in front of them, a slight frown fixed on to his face. She took the opportunity to ditch the key in an underarm lob in his direction, expecting it to bounce off his chest. Instead, with reflexes like a cat, Aziru caught it and turned to her with a quizzical expression.

Sam heard Vala smother a laugh.

‘Well,’ Sam said, refusing to be put out, ‘let’s go take a look.’

The apartment the IOA was offering was small, but Sam didn’t think it looked too bad. Vala breezed around, opening draws and cupboards and just generally checking out the place. Aziru watched her from just inside the door. As Vala threw open the fridge, Sam turned to him.

‘What do you think?’

‘I think your IOA are going to demand an arm or a leg for this deal,’ said Aziru dryly. Sam looked up, startled, and he shrugged. ‘You did ask.’

She gave a rueful smile. ‘Actually, Daniel’s being demanding this since you got here. I mean, the guest quarters at the SGC aren’t exactly five star accommodation.’

‘In that case…’ Aziru stepped further into the apartment. ‘I believe I should thank him. Does this mean I am no longer under guard?’

‘No guards,’ Sam told him, watching as Vala disappeared off through a doorway. ‘Daniel’s been throwing a fit over that too.’

‘It’s amazing what working on a cargo ship can do for you.’ Aziru walked around a coffee table and glanced around the room thoughtfully. ‘Hmm, could do with some redecoration.’ He looked at her slyly. ‘A few hieroglyphs there, sarcophagus in the corner…’

Sam nearly tripped over her own feet, she was so surprised.

Aziru caught her expression and hitched a shoulder. ‘Too soon, perhaps.’

The mischievous spark in his eyes gave him away and, despite herself, Sam couldn’t help sniggering. ‘Whatever you do, _don’t_ say that around the IOA.’

‘I had noticed they have a poor sense of humour.’ Aziru sniffed disdainfully.

‘I really don’t want to ask, do I?’

‘I suspect not.’

Sam returned his grin.

‘You know, they got you green towels, who wants-‘ Vala stopped and stared at the two of them. ‘Did I miss something? I did, I missed something, didn’t I?’

‘I was just commenting on the sparse decoration,’ Aziru said, turning slightly so that Vala didn’t catch the wink he aimed at Sam.

Vala nodded and eyed the room critically. ‘It could do with a bit of colour, maybe some flowers…’

‘Absolutely,’ Aziru agreed, sitting down on the couch and stretching his legs out. Sam caught the amused smile tucked into the corners of his mouth as Vala started handing out decorating tips. It occurred to Sam that Aziru was quite good looking. She shook her head at herself; of course he was, the Goa’uld always chose attractive hosts.

By the time Vala started talking about changing the curtains, Aziru’s expression had morphed into exasperated boredom.

There was an edge to his voice when he said, ‘I doubt yellow would go with your intended paint scheme.’

Whether she missed the tone entirely, or chose to ignore it, Sam wasn’t sure, but Vala seemed to consider the point seriously. ‘We could always go with a different colour for this room.’

Aziru’s forehead creased into a slight frown and then, unmistakably, he narrowed his eyes.

As Sam hastily turned her laugh into a cough, Aziru smoothed out the subtle glare as if it had never been there. They both looked at her.

‘What?’ asked Vala, mildly defensively, and it occurred to Sam that Vala thought she’d been laughing at her decorating techniques.

‘Nothing,’ said Sam, quickly ‘I was just coughing.’

Vala sent her a suspicious look, but went right back to explaining her elaborate new paint ideas. Sam tapped her fingers on the arm of a chair and looked at Aziru thoughtfully.

_______________________________

Aziru sat cross-legged on the floor by the sublight engine crystal tray, a tablet balanced on one arm while he examined the damage to the system.

Sam found him more agreeable like this; actually working rather than looking blankly at the plans she handed him. It seemed more natural somehow, except for the silence. The silence still made her uncomfortable. Aside from the odd comment about what needed doing, Aziru still really didn’t say much at all. Even less so when there were other people around, because while he occasionally cracked a joke around her, he went silent as soon as one of the SFs came in.

The one thing that had changed was that he _was_ commenting on what needed doing. In fact, he clearly found it much easier to concentrate while actually there as opposed to staring at her computer screen. While he did still look confused at some of the equations she handed him, on the whole they actually seemed to get getting somewhere. Finally.

A beep from her own tablet alerted Sam that Aziru had jammed the power output to the crystal tray.

‘Whoa, wait,’ said Sam. ‘You’re supposed to tell me before you make changes. Why did you do that?’

A frown creased Aziru’s forehead. ‘There is a crack in crystal three, if this crystal tray was brought fully online it would undoubtedly shatter.’

Sam shook her head. ‘No, the crystals in that tray are fine. None of them are damaged.’

‘Crystal three is cracked,’ said Aziru firmly. ‘Granted, it is not visible to the naked eye but it is the only thing which would explain the slight power lag I am detecting from the sublight engines. If they were powered up it _would_ shatter and we would have one less crystal to work with. Not to mention the inevitable damage to those nearby.’

He _could_ be right, Sam supposed, as there was definitely a problem with sublight that she hadn’t managed to pinpoint yet, but none of her calculations had pointed her to a damaged crystal. Sam scanned over the equations again. ‘Huh. Well we can take it down to the lab and analyse it, so we know for sure, but if that’s the problem that’s pretty serious because we don’t have a spare.’

Aziru lifted an eyebrow. ‘There’s no problem, I was merely shutting off the power to this tray while I create an alternate pathway.’ He hesitated. ‘Unless you had a better idea.’

Clearly Aziru didn’t remember the system as well as he thought. Sam disconnected her tablet from the main display and walked over to him. ‘There isn’t a way to reroute safely around crystal three, we’d have to shut down that tray entirely and alter the hyperdrive pathway so it handles some of sublight as well.’

‘Of course there’s a way.’ The arrogant expression he wore was very familiar. ‘Crystal six can be reprogrammed to take the strain from three and with a few modifications five can handle more than one function.’

Aziru angled his tablet towards her so that Sam could see his calculations.

‘Really? I don’t think crystal six can be reprogrammed like that.’ The modifications he was proposing were extremely advanced; way beyond her own understanding and Sam liked to think she knew cargo ships pretty well. The equations seemed solid enough though, but she wasn’t even sure that crystal three was the problem and by Aziru’s own admission his memory was sketchy at best.

‘It can. I, _he_ has done it before.’

‘I just don’t think that crystal three is the issue here.’ Sam showed him her own work. ‘Look, it could easily be a connection problem.’

‘No, it could not.’ Aziru held her gaze. ‘A connection problem would show a random fluctuation of the power across the entire system, we are seeing a localised effect due to microscopic damage in crystal three.’

‘If it was a _minor_ connection problem…’ Sam brought up a simulation and ran it for him. ‘Look, it more or less mirrors what we’re seeing.’

‘Hmm. Your parameters for the simulation are wrong, you are not taking into account the effect on the entire ships power array due to the severe damage to the weapons systems. Here.’

Aziru reached across her, his shoulder bumping hers, as he altered the programming for her simulation. Sam let him do it. It had taken hours to approximate a reasonable simulation for the cargo ship, but this _was_ why he was here. She’d been working with Goa’uld technology for just over a decade, he’d been using it for two thousand years.

The changes made, he ran the simulation again. ‘ _This_ is what you would observe if it were a minor connection problem, the effects are far more pronounced.’

‘Huh.’ Sam sat back on her heels. ‘I stand corrected. Do you really think crystal six can take the strain?’

Aziru actually rolled his eyes. ‘Yes, Samantha, crystal six is designed to be reprogrammed for exactly this kind of situation. I would have expected you to know that.’

‘Nope. Can you show me how?’ Sam was intrigued, the type of reprogramming he was talking about was exceptionally complex.

‘It would be quicker if I were to just do it.’

‘Yeah,’ Sam agreed. ‘But then I wouldn’t learn how to do it myself, would I?’

Aziru gave a long suffering sigh.

Sam grinned at him and it occurred to her that when Aziru was concentrating, he was actually fun to work with. She did love a challenge. ‘I’ll try to keep up, I promise.’

‘As you wish.’ Aziru connected the tablet to the crystal. ‘We will begin by reassigning crystal three’s most basic functions…’

___________________________

It was far later than Sam had intended when they finished up for the day, late enough that by the time they got back to the SGC the night crew was on. Sam’s stomach rumbled and she decided that since she was already there late, she might as well just grab some food.

‘You are not seriously going to eat here?’ asked Aziru as Sam started to head off.

Sam grinned at the look on his face. ‘Yeah, I am. It’s easier, I mean I can’t cook, so…’

Aziru shrugged. ‘Neither can I, but I know a take-out Chinese that is excellent and still open.’

‘You do?’ The words were out before she could stop them. ‘Oh, you mean from…?’

He grimaced. ‘Yes, last time I was here.’

Sam ducked her head. ‘So, uh, Chinese take-out sounds good.’

His face broke out into a smile, a true one, not the smirk she’s used to seeing and for a second Sam wanted to back out; she wasn’t sure why she’d agreed in the first place. Sam attempted to marshal her thoughts into an excuse that worked, but instead what came out was; ‘Do you drive?’

Aziru’s eyebrows rose and Sam had to admit it was an odd question, but now that she’d asked it, she found she was curious. ‘No. I have been making use of your taxi system.’

‘Oh, well I can drive then.’ Sam headed off towards the elevator and Aziru followed. ‘What’s the address?’

As he told her, Sam caught a glimpse of Vala through the elevator doors. She fluttered her fingers at Sam, flicked her eyes towards Aziru, and winked. Wincing, Sam realised that Vala was going to want to hear all the gossip the next day… not that there would be anything worth gossiping about.

They ended up at Aziru’s apartment with the Chinese, and Sam had to admit it was very good. Trust Ba’al to find the good food around. Although she wondered whether Ba’al would have eaten it on the couch as they were, or whether he would have been more formal.

Aziru finished his food and sat back on the couch, stretching like a cat. Sam was almost disappointed when he didn’t pull the cliché move and put his arm around her.

Dismissing the thought, Sam bumped his shoulder with hers. ‘Not bad.’

‘Certainly better than the SGC’s alternative,’ he agreed, smiling at her. Sam idly noticed that there was a subtle ring of gold in the brown of his eyes.

He caught her staring and Sam quickly averted her eyes. ‘Sorry.’

‘For what?’

‘For…’ Sam stopped, feeling her cheeks flush. A low laugh rumbled through him and she shook her head as she realised he was teasing her.

She smacked his shoulder playfully. ‘Funny.’

‘It was, actually.’ His smile widened as he leaned in closer to her. There was really no doubt where he was going with that, where the whole evening had been going if she was honest, and Sam felt a buzz of anticipation.

‘We really shouldn’t,’ She managed to say, trying to convince herself to look away from those deep brown eyes.

‘Why not?’ Aziru asked, quirking one eyebrow and leaning in closer still, so their faces were inches apart.

His gaze was intense and Sam tried to tear her eyes away from his. ‘No, really. There are lots of reasons…’

Aziru stroked her face, leaving his hand resting on her neck. ‘Name one.’

Sam bit her bottom lip and really she didn’t want to come up with a reason; she wanted this as much as he did. A little voice at the back of her mind whispered there was a _very_ good reason, one that stemmed from the growing suspicion that it wasn’t actually Aziru she was attracted to.

That was one thought she was absolutely not going to explore. Sam leant forward and she could feel his smile as their lips met. He deepened the kiss and Sam explored his mouth thoroughly, letting herself enjoy the sensation. Then his hand moved to cup her breast and Sam felt a shudder of pleasure rumble through her body as she reached for his belt.

Aziru’s body was tanned, lean and muscled and Sam got lost in the moment, running her hands over him and allowing him to do the same to her until she was aching. Somehow, they made it on to the bed and Sam pulled him on top of her, a wicked look entered his eyes and for a moment Sam thought he might slide down and taste her… but then he leant forward and kissed the side of her neck, grazing her with his teeth. Sam wondered whether oral would have been Ba’al’s choice and a thrill ran though her.

He thrust his hips forward and Sam moaned, wrapping her legs around his waist.

‘Oh god,’ she gasped, matching her movements to his, pleasure making her moan again and again, then he groaned and his climax pushed her over the edge. ‘God! _Ba’al_!’

It was as if the world stopped.

Where everything had been movement and pleasure, now there was only silence and Sam lay there unable to move, frozen in horror. The epiphany that had been lurking unacknowledged at the back of her mind was now out in the open, between them, and she had no idea what to say to put things right.

Aziru rolled off her, saying nothing and they lay side by side, while Sam tried to kick her mind back into gear, to think of something, _anything_ , to say. Maybe there was nothing to say. Quite probably she’d already said too much.

‘I… I think I’d better go,’ Sam said softly, her legs were still like jelly, but she managed to swing them over the side of the bed.

‘I think that would be best.’ Aziru’s voice was carefully neutral and Sam would have given anything to know what he was thinking. Although it was possible she was happier not knowing.

‘I’m sorry, Aziru. I just… I’m sorry.’ Sam stumbled naked out of the room and somehow managed to find and put on her clothes.

Part of her wanted to go back into him, to try and explain, but she knew it was futile, so instead she continued out of the front door, in a daze.

‘God, I’m sorry,’ Sam whispered again to the night, a weight settling over her heart. It would take more strength than she was willing to give to recognise it as loss, as well as guilt.

___________________________

‘ _Sam!_ ’ Vala’s excited voice cut through the SGC and Sam stopped as Vala bounced up to her and continued in a confidential voice; ‘I heard you went to _Aziru’s_ last night, so,’ Vala nudged her in the ribs. ‘How did _that_ go.’

If she had visibly paled, Sam wouldn’t have been surprised. Lie. She had to lie, and quickly. ‘Not like _that,_ Vala.’

Vala’s face fell. ‘Oh dear, it didn’t go well then?’

Give her a battalion of Anubis’s super-soldiers, Apophis, a dozen Priors, anything but that conversation. Maybe the IOA needed to talk to her.

She had to change the subject, because nevermind that _she_ didn’t want rumours, what about Aziru? She’d done enough to him already.

Sam forced a smile. ‘It was never like that, _really_.’

‘Oh come on, Sam, you can tell _me_.’

Tell her? Sam couldn’t tell anyone. She’d been happier when she hadn’t known what it was about Aziru that annoyed her, hadn’t known it was the lack of arrogance, the absence of a smirk. Now she knew she had only started warming to him when he’d starting remembering things, and, probably as a direct consequence, echoes of another personality had come through.

And that’s all they were. Echoes, only echoes. How could she look Aziru in the eye when that disappointed her?

‘Sam?’ Vala’s gaze was worried. ‘Are you okay? Because I really thought you’d be working on the cargo ship with him today… and, well, you’re not.’

No, because, if Aziru wanted to see her again than Sam would eat her tack vest. But she appreciated the concern.

‘I’m fine, Vala. I just had a few other things to work on this morning, I’m going to check on the cargo ship’s progress now.’

And hopefully find a way to apologise, she felt she owed him that much.

‘Oh, okay then.’ Vala’s tone was unconvinced.

The Odyssey wasn’t in orbit anymore, so Sam had to get regular transport to the cargo ship’s top secret location. Plenty of time for her think about what she was going to say when she got there. Something that wouldn’t make things worse.

She still hadn’t thought of anything when she walked into the cargo ship. God, this was going to go badly, Sam wished she’d stayed at Stargate Command.

‘Samantha!’ Aziru popped up from behind the open crystal tray with a wide-eyed look that bordered on desperation. ‘ _Why_ have you left me with _Dr Lee_?’

It was not what she’d been expecting, to say the least. ‘I, uh, I wasn’t sure you’d want to work with me today. I thought you might prefer to work with Bill.’

‘ _No_!’ said Aziru vehemently.

‘Okay,’ said Sam slowly, trying to understand. Had he seriously forgiven her, or did he just dislike Bill Lee enough to prefer working with her? Bill did seem to have that effect on some people. ‘But it’s not a case of me or him, you know, I can arrange for someone else… ’ She trailed off. ‘Listen, I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean-‘

An indecipherable expression flickered over his face and then Aziru actually got hold of her sleeve and leaned in to say in a low voice. ‘I have no problem working with you. Please, do not leave me to work with him, it is inevitable that-‘

Aziru stepped back from her as Bill walked back into the room. ‘If you put crystal four back in it might just work now. Oh, Colonel Carter, I didn’t think you were coming in today.’

‘Oh, I just thought I’d come in and see how things were going,’ Sam lied. She’d wanted to apologise to Aziru, but he didn’t seem to be holding a grudge at all. It was actually a bit unnerving.

‘May I see your calculations?’ asked Aziru, reaching for Bill’s tablet as he moved towards the crystal tray again.

‘Oh sure.’ Bill handed it over, seemingly blind to Aziru’s agitation. ‘Just replace crystal four and I’ll activate the new communication parameters.’

‘Hmm.’ Aziru looked suspiciously at him, but replaced the crystal, glancing through Bill’s tablet which was balanced on the crock of his right arm.

‘Bringing the power back online, now,’ announced Bill.

‘Wait- _!_ ’ The warning came too late and the crystal tray began sparking wildly. Ditching the tablet hastily on the floor, Aziru seized the crystal he’d just replaced and a _bang_ reverberated through the ship as he was obscured by sparks.

Seeing Bill hurriedly turn the power off again, Sam rushed forward, blinking through the spots in her vision. Aziru was lying several meters back from the crystal tray, still holding crystal four in his right hand.

Sam knelt by his side, reaching for his pulse with trembling fingers. ‘Aziru?'

‘Incompetence!’ He sat up so abruptly, he nearly head-butted her in the face. ‘Unless your intention is to destroy this ship I suggest you remove _him_ immediately and-‘ He swayed and nearly feel back down again.

Bill was staring at him like he’d seen a ghost and Sam sent him a warning look. Anyone had a right to be pissed off when they’d just been electrocuted.

‘Hey, try to stay still, that looked like a hell of a shock. Bill, call a med team.’

‘I’m _fine_. However, none of us would have been fine if I had not managed to remove _this_.’ Aziru lifted the crystal and then hissed in pain.

Awkwardness aside, this was serious, so Sam grabbed his wrist. The palm of his hand was red and developing blisters. She winced and carefully took the crystal from him. ‘Here, I’ll get some water on this.’

Aziru tried to tug his arm back. ‘It will heal.’

Oh boy. Sam kept her grip firm and pulled out her water canteen. ‘Actually it won’t, or at least, not like you’re used to.’

‘Ah.’ Aziru grimaced as the truth in her words sank in, and didn’t try and pull away again. ‘Yes, I see.’

___________________________

The ship was operational. Of course, the little tweaks he’d made in its programming told the Tau’ri otherwise, but it was ready to go.

Ba’al sat back on his heels and examined the hyperdrive crystal set. He could enact his plan immediately, and make the remaining repairs once he was well away from Earth, or he could stay a little longer and have Samantha’s help in doing so. It was extremely tempting to stay and work with her longer.

Samantha’s company had made the impromptu visit to Earth worthwhile, and he found it endlessly amusing that she had come to like him too. And he had proof it was not the host he pretended to be that she was fond of. Ba’al smirked. It would be interesting to take her with him, but was unfortunately out of the question; he might succeed in escaping if alone, but with Samantha… The Tau’ri would never stop hunting him. Also, Samantha herself would be less than impressed.

No, Samantha would have to remain behind. A shame, but necessary.

It was also a shame that he would be unable to get revenge on the so-called scientist, Dr Lee. Ba’al had become accustomed to Samantha’s calculations and had not been expecting Lee’s to be so far off. It had nearly destroyed his escape route. As it was, the burn on his hand was annoyingly painful and taking it time to heal. Why humans refused to use a sarcophagus when their bodies were that frail was beyond him.

There was more than the ship, or even revenge, to consider. More time would give him an opportunity to study some of the many interesting technologies the Tau’ri had managed to acquire, not in the least the legacy the Asgard had left them.

He’d had a certain amount of access to Asgard technology because of Anubis, but nothing like the sheer volume of information the Tau’ri now had. If he could get his hands on the Asgard weapons…

Ba’al sighed. Admittedly, his chances of getting anywhere near the data for Asgard weapons was minimal at best.

Perhaps, his best option truly was to cut his losses and get out while he still could.

With a quick glance behind him, Ba’al plucked out a crystal from the hyperdrive tray and tucked it away inside his jacket. Samantha continued tapping away at her tablet, oblivious, and Ba’al was struck by the uncomfortable realisation that he was going to miss her.

___________________________

‘Okay, folks,’ said O’Neill looking with some irritation at the Tok’ra representative, Delek. ‘What’s so important?’

‘We believe we made a mistake when we released Aziru to you,’ said Delek.

‘What kind of a mistake?’ asked Daniel.

Vala leaned forward. ‘Oh hardly a mistake. He doesn’t remember that much and you couldn’t keep him against his will. He wasn’t a prisoner.’

‘We believe he should have been.’

‘Excuse me?’ asked Jack.

Daniel wasn’t sure what Delek meant either. ‘You said you didn’t know anything about Ba’al’s host? And you can’t honestly want to imprison him after everything he’s been through.’

The Tok’ra grimaced. ‘Nothing is known about Aziru, if that was, in fact the host’s name.’

‘At the risk of repeating myself,’ said Jack. ‘ _Excuse_ me.’

‘How about we get to the point?’ suggested Landry.

‘It may be that the thousands years Ba’al inhabited his host was too long.’ Delek took a deep breath. ‘We believe that it was sufficient time that Ba’al’s mind would have overridden the host, had we examined his brain waves before the extraction we think there would only have been evidence of one consciousness.’

‘Wait, wait.’ Daniel couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It couldn’t be what it sounded like. ‘So, there’s no host left?’

‘For crying out loud,’ Jack said. ‘We _know_ there’s a host. Otherwise when you took out the snake, he’d have just collapsed, right? No consciousness, no walking and talking. He’s been doing a lot of that for someone who’s not supposed to exist.’

‘Yeah,’ said Vala. ‘He’s definitely in there.’

Delek looked more than a little uncomfortable and there was a nasty suspicion forming at the back of Daniel’s mind.

‘It’s possible that when we extracted the symbiote, its mind imprinted on the brain of the host as a direct consequence of the length of time that host had been used.’

‘You’re telling us,’ said Daniel, mostly because he needed to hear it absolutely clearly. ‘That when you extracted Ba’al, there was no host anymore, so we were just left with… Ba’al.’

‘It is… possible.’

‘You let us bring a Goa’uld System Lord to Earth?’ Landry was not impressed. ‘How did you not figure this out sooner?’

‘The concept had been suggested and rejected before the extraction,’ admitted Delek. ‘Thankfully there were those of us who did some research into the subject and came to the conclusion that rather than being unlikely, the outcome was probable.’

‘And you’re just telling us this now?’ Jack glared at him. ‘This is why I hate working with you guys!’

‘We came here as soon as we found out ourselves.’ Delek leaned forwards. ‘While it is still possible that Aziru is who he claims, it is far more likely that he is lying. We must be extremely cautious but I suggest we detain him immediately.’

‘No kidding!’

Landry stood up from the table. ‘Contact Colonel Carter immediately and get her to get Aziru… Ba’al, whoever, _off_ that ship ASAP, without alerting him. I want teams armed with zats to head out now, hopefully we can incapacitate him before he knows anything is wrong.’

‘You let him on a ship?’ Delek sounded alarmed, Daniel shared that sentiment.

Jack rounded on him. ‘ _Someone_ assured us that he wasn’t a snake head anymore!’

‘Well, we know he isn’t,’ Daniel felt compelled to point out. ‘Not technically anyway.’

‘That’s weird.’ Jack pointed at him. ‘Very weird.’

‘How about,’ said Landry, raising his voice slightly, ‘we work on getting him away from the ship. _Now_ people.’

___________________________

‘There is a crystal missing here,’ said Aziru suddenly and Sam jumped. They hadn’t been talking a lot, mostly because she _still_ wasn’t sure exactly how angry he was with her.

Confused, Sam came over. ‘There shouldn’t be. Where?’

‘At the back of the crystal tray.’ Aziru lent over the tray and indicated. ‘Here.’

Sam stared down at the empty slot. Granted, it was a small crystal, but she couldn’t see how they’d missed it when they went over the ship. She hadn’t seen any notes that that section had had damaged or missing crystals. And she would have sworn it was there the day before.

‘That’s weird. I need to go look if someone’s removed it, maybe because they found a crack in it, or it had electrical damage. It’ll be recorded in the system if they have, will you be alright here while I go find out?’

Aziru sat back from the crystal tray. ‘Of course. I will rerun the hyperdrive simulation to make sure we haven’t missed anything.’

Once in the main base, Sam found that the records showed no sign of a missing or damaged crystal, nor was there any note of one being removed to study. Was it possible they’d simply not noticed? Sam was wondering if they’d missed anything else when the call came through on her radio and made her jump again.

 _‘Sam? Are you and Aziru still working on the cargo ship?’_ Daniel asked.

Frowning, Sam leant back from the computer. Daniel knew they were supposed to be working for at least another hour. ‘Sure, why?’

_‘Oh, Landry wanted to talk to you about an upcoming mission, so he was hoping you could come back to base early.’_

Sam found that a little weird. Sure, it was possible Landry wanted her back early, but why was it Daniel telling her? ‘Okay, we can do that. I’m not actually on the ship, so I’ll just let Aziru know and we’ll-‘

 _‘Wait, you left him alone on the ship?’_ Daniel asked incredulously.

Something was definitely wrong and Sam unconsciously reached for her sidearm. ‘Yeah, well, no, there are guards on it. Why, is there a problem?’

 _‘Yes, Carter!’_ Jack’s voice cut through on the radio and Sam got a sinking feeling in her stomach. _‘The Tok’ra are here and guess what? It probably wasn’t Aziru they sent back to us, so get him off that ship if you have to drag his unconscious-‘_

 _‘Jack.’_ Daniel broke back in. _‘Sam, he could be Ba’al.’_

The hissing of the radio filled her ears and Sam could do nothing but stare blankly. Impossible. She’d seen the extraction herself; they all had.

_‘Sam? Are you still there?’_

‘Yes, Daniel, say again.’ Sam chewed her lip. ‘I think I might have misheard you.’

 _‘I doubt it Carter!’_ Jack’s voice came through loud and clear.

 _‘The Tok’ra think it was too long for the host’s mind to have survived, they think nothing was left on the host and when we extracted the symbiote, Ba’al’s mind imprinted on the host_. _’_ Daniel paused. _‘It’s probably been Ba’al the whole time. We’re on our way, but you have to get him off that ship.’_

Oh God. Throwing aside the obvious personal issues, Sam bolted out the door for the cargo ship. It rose, slowly and gracefully, until it hovered several meters from the ground. The rings descended and deposited the two guards they’d left on the ship, unconscious. One of them was missing his radio and Sam would have bet he hadn’t dropped it.

‘Damn it!’

There were people yelling instructions around her and someone aimed a RPG at the ship, but Sam just stood and swore. _Probably_ didn’t come into it. That was Ba’al alright and she’d worked side by side with him to secure his escape route.

That wasn’t all she’d done. Fury laced through her, she’d spent _days_ feeling bad for him because of that and all the time he must have been inwardly laughing at her. Smug, that was the word, he would have been smug. Admiration rudely interrupted her outrage; Ba’al had played them all and he’d done it well.

The cargo ship shimmered and disappeared as Ba’al activated the cloak.

‘Contact the SGC,’ Sam yelled to the guy still holding the grenade launcher. ‘Let them know what’s happening and get some gliders in the air! We can’t let him escape!’

Although how they were going to capture a cloaked ship was beyond her, and God only knew what modifications Ba’al had secretly made to the ship. _Damn_ it, she hadn’t been watching for it because she’d thought he barely remembered the systems, he could have done _anything_! Even if they did catch him, Sam wasn’t sure what they were supposed to do with him, after all, they’d already had him extracted.

‘Ma’am, he’s hailing us.’ The airman looked thoroughly pissed off and Sam followed him back inside the compound.

Sure enough, Ba’al was on the screen.

He looked incredibly pleased with himself. ‘ _Hello again, Samantha._ ’

‘Hi, _Aziru_ ,’ Sam said, snidely, waiting for the anger to re-emerge at his appearance. It didn’t.

Ba’al smiled. ‘ _No doubt you’ll be using this transmission to locate my ship so I’ll be brief_.’

‘Why bother contacting us at all?’

_‘Why, Samantha, I wanted to thank you. Both for your excellent company and for this ship that you have so kindly given to me.’_

Sam felt her face heat up, but refused to acknowledge anything in front of all the airmen in the room. ‘That ship isn’t fit to fly yet and you know it.’

‘ _Actually_ ,’ Ba’al leaned back his chair and surveyed his surrounding appreciatively, _‘it’s perfectly fit. If you examine your readings of the sublight engine you may find the true diagnostic data underneath my masking program.’_

Sam didn’t need to check to know he was telling the truth. If her diagnostic readings _had_ been correct Ba’al would already have come crashing back to Earth. There was no doubt about it and Sam was impressed, _very_ impressed if she were being honest; it had taken some skill to hide that from her.

‘So,’ Sam said, mainly to keep him talking. ‘Was Aziru really your host’s name, or did you just make that up?’

Ba’al’s eyebrows rose and Sam would have bet anything that he knew it was a stall tactic. _‘Does it matter? You were never interested in Aziru.’_

He winked and Sam had the urge to shut off the communications link as all eyes in the room turned on her. But she had to leave it on, so that they could… they could what? Capture him? Did she even want that?

‘I guess not,’ said Sam, only realising her mistake when Ba’al smirked. ‘I guess it _doesn’t matter_ , not that…’

The door was flung open behind her and Daniel, Vala and Jack barrelled in.

‘Carter,’ said Jack, ‘Why does that look like Ba’al on that screen, because I swear you were supposed to get him _off_ the cargo ship.’

Sam hung her head. ‘Sorry, sir. He got hold of a radio and heard what was going on.’

 _‘General O’Neill, Daniel Jackson and Qetesh. How nice to see you all.’_ Ba’al paused and smiled. _‘By which I mean: how nice to see you on the screen while I escape with your ship.’_

‘Oh, how I hoped the Tok’ra were wrong.’ Daniel glared at Ba’al.

‘The Tok’ra are only wrong when it’s inconvenient,’ muttered Jack.

There was a beep in the background of Ba’al’s communication and he looked down at something. _‘Ah, that is my cue to leave.’_ Ba’al looked up and locked eyes with Sam. _‘Thank_ you _for the help, Samantha, I fully intend to see you again.’_

The connection cut out and in that moment Sam could have cheerfully strangled him.

Daniel turned to her, ‘What?’

Vala, however, looked at Sam with wide eyes and Sam had the horrifying revelation that Vala _knew._ Oh God.

Jack shouted into his radio. ‘Tell me we pinpointed his ship!’

Vala used the noise to whisper in her ear. ‘Not a word, _ever._ I promise.’

Relief flooded through her and Sam did her best to convey how grateful she was through a quick glance in Vala’s direction. If anyone found out…Daniel might forgive her, but Jack. Jesus Christ, if Jack found out…

 _‘No, sir,’_ came the reply _. ‘He cut the transmission just before we could get a definite position.’_

‘I want all our ships up there!’ Jack yelled. ‘He’ll have to open a hyperspace window and we can blow him away before he enters it!’

‘Too late.’ Sam stared down at her monitor and at the hyperspace window that had just opened at the edge of their sensor range.

‘Why aren’t we shooting at him?’ Vala asked, leaning over Sam’s shoulder in order to peer at the screen.

‘No ships in range,’ replied Daniel grimly.

‘Squad leader,’ Jack barked into the radio. ‘You’re target is at… nevermind.’ Jack threw up his hands and turned away from the monitor. ‘Squad leader return to base.’

The blank screen blinked up at Sam as the hyperspace window closed behind Ba’al ship. Her relief at his escape was not really a surprise, but it was marred by the disappointment that he was gone.

 _I intend to see you again_ , Ba’al had said.

Sam found herself hoping that he’d meant it.

________________________

 


End file.
